Contact Farmer Selection, Extension Advice and Adoption in the Training and Visit System: Evidence from Sri Lanka

Although humanity possesses the resources, capital and technology to feed all people both now and in the foreseeable future, this technology has not found its way to many farms in Third World countries. An ineffective agricultural extension system is often the culprit. The World Bank promoted Training and Visit (T & V) System of extension is seen as more effective in reaching out to farmers than were previous extension efforts. T & V uses a two-step flow of communication whereby at the village level, extension is provided by T & V agents to selected "contact farmers" who in turn are expected to pass this on to the "follow farmers", i.e. the general farming population. This paper examines the extent to which the selection of contact farmers is biased towards relatively wealthier farmers, how well T & V advice given to the contact farmer trickles down to the follow farmer using 1984 Sri Lankan survey data; also implications for rural development are discussed.